Philly Shipyard wins contract for hospital ship replacement study

USNS Comfort was a New York City landmark during the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo: McAllister/ David Rider

Philly Shipyard Inc. reports that it has been awarded a contract by Gibbs & Cox to conduct the T-AH(X) Hospital Ship Feasibility Study. The six-month hospital ship replacement study will cover a solution for preliminary designs to replace the two current hospital ships – USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort – owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Military Sealift Command (MSC).

Those two ships, which were much in the news during the corona virus pandemic, were originally delivered by NASSCO as San Clemente class tankers in 1974 and 1978 and were subsequently converted by NASSCO and delivered as hospital ships in 1984 and 1985. Navy thinking on what hospital ships should do has changed since then.

Philly Shipyard will subcontract to Vard Marine Inc. to provide engineering and technical services for the hospital ship replacement study.

“This contract win highlights our commitment to pursuing and securing work in the government market,” said Steinar Nerbovik, Philly Shipyard president and CEO. “Along with our current commercial and government backlog of shipbuilding projects, we have completed previous design studies for the U.S. Navy and are very interested in pursuing government opportunities that fit our production delivery cycles and skill sets. We are excited and grateful to team up, once again, with Vard Marine on this important industry study.”

Philly Shipyard and Vard will leverage design work performed as part of a special study completed for the U.S. Navy’s Common Hull Auxiliary Multi-Mission Platform (CHAMP) program, which was won in 2019.